Tag Archives: Barton Senior Center

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BARTON — The defunct Barton Senior Center has given its equipment to Greater Barton Arts (GBA), a nonprofit headed by Ed and Adrien Helm that aims to promote the arts in the Barton area.

However, following an executive session at their meeting Monday, the Barton Village Trustees composed a letter to Ms. Helm saying additional action is necessary regarding Greater Barton Arts’ claim to “items which may or may not be present in the Barton Village Memorial Building.”

The trustees asked that evidence be provided that “(a) the former Barton Senior Center, Inc., held title to the items listed in the attachment to your letter, and (b) the Barton Senior Center, Inc. Board of Directors thereafter conveyed its title of these items to the Greater Barton Arts, Inc.”

The trustees’ letter goes on to say that the Barton Senior Center Board dissolved the organization in September.

“Please provide evidence that the Senior Center, prior to dissolution, transferred the list of assets to the Greater Barton Arts organization,” the trustees’ letter says.

Brenda Lowther, director of the senior center, also gave Greater Barton Arts $20,000 of the nonprofit’s money. That money is now in an escrow account and will be used for programs for seniors, Mr. and Ms. Helm said last month.

The Barton Senior Center abruptly closed in September. Much of the food was given to the senior meal center in West Burke.

Equipment remains in the basement of the Memorial Building where the old senior meals program was, and where a new and unrelated one is now functioning with a new director and a new board.

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The money is in an escrow account and will be used for programs for seniors, said Ed and Adrien Helm, Greater Barton Arts board members.

The senior center abruptly closed at the end of September. At the time it had assets of about $25,000. Some of its equipment is still on the first floor of the Barton Memorial Building. Much of the food was given to the senior meal center in West Burke.

Initially, Barton Senior Center Director Brenda Lowther had a bank check for $20,000 written to a state agency called Disabilities, Aging, and Independent Living. That organization gave the senior center a $25,000 startup grant about 12 years ago.

Paperwork for the grant has long since been closed out, and there was no mechanism for accepting the money. Ms. Lowther said at the time that she viewed the check as repayment for the original grant.

IRS rules say that when a nonprofit is dissolved, its assets must go to another nonprofit that serves a similar purpose or “according to its charter.” The Barton Senior Center’s charter said that its assets were to be transferred to a similar 501(c)3.

A bank check in the amount of $20,000 dated October 26 was paid to the order of Greater Barton Arts/Senior Arts Escrow.

Ms. Helm said by phone Tuesday that Greater Barton Arts is also a 501(c)3 “and some of our programs already involve seniors.” Those programs will be expanded, she said.

She said the Greater Barton Arts Board voted to put the money in an escrow account.

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BARTON — The Barton Senior Center served its last meal on September 27.

On Tuesday night, about 30 people, including two Barton Village Trustees and two representatives from the Northeast Kingdom Council on Aging, met in the Barton Municipal Building to talk about starting up a new program to provide meals and activities to seniors in the area.

“This is too important to shut down,” said 82-year-old Beverley Winslow before the meeting started. “I have a lot of my life ahead of me, and I really enjoy going somewhere, playing cards, being around other people. I need this place.”

When the new senior center opens its doors, she will be the first one through them, she said.

By the end of the evening, the trustees had collected a pile of surveys that they hope will point a new senior center in the right direction. And six or seven people had volunteered to sit on a new board, which the trustees hope will eventually number at least 11.

But many questions remain unanswered.

Former senior center Director Brenda Lowther gave the village only about a week’s notice of the closing, said Trustee Cathy Swain.

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Gloria Powers pauses in the middle of cleaning the kitchen in the Glover Town Hall in preparation for the opening of the new Glover senior meal site on June 29. From left to right are her granddaughter Brittany Marsh, honorary granddaughter Chelsea Pulver, Gloria Powers, and her daughter Kristi Powers, who is also Brittany’s mother. Ms. Pulver will also help cook and serve at the meal site. Photo by Elizabeth Trail

copyright the Chronicle June 24, 2015

by Elizabeth Trail

GLOVER — Gloria Powers never stands still. At 70 years old, she is a tiny dynamo of a woman who simply exudes energy. And right now, she’s a woman with a mission.

On Monday, June 29, Ms. Powers will serve up the first meals at the new senior meal site in the basement of the town hall here, and she still has a lot to do.

She is approaching the project with relish.

Last Friday morning, with just ten days to go before opening, she was busy cleaning and organizing the kitchen where she will cook the weekly senior meals. The menus were planned and the food donations were in the freezer….To read the rest of this article, and all the Chronicle‘s stories, subscribe:

Shown here are winners of the Chronicle’s jack-o’-lantern contest in 2012 and some of the winning entries all lit up. For good measure we have added a photo from the Barton Senior Center’s Halloween party. The group had a pumpkin pie contest and costume contest.